Lindsay Lohan Checks Into New Rehab Center, Changes Lawyers

Taryn Ryder

omg! Celeb News•May 2, 2013

FRIDAY MORNING UPDATE: Sources have confirmed to omg! and "omg! Insider" that Lindsay Lohan has dropped her Mark Heller as her attorney and is back with her former attorney, Shawn Chapman Holley. Also, sources have confirmed to omg! that Lohan is currently checked in at the Betty Ford Clinic in Rancho Mirage, California.

THURSDAY NIGHT UPDATE: The Los Angeles Times reports that Lindsay Lohan violated her probation by leaving Morningside Recovery on Thursday, where she was to begin 90 days of court-ordered treatment. Deputy Santa Monica city attorney Terry White said that he learned Lohan spent just a few minutes at the Orange County rehab facility before leaving. "Ms. Lohan is in violation of her probation, that much is clear," said White, who added he didn't know Lohan's whereabouts.

Meanwhile, a source told Us Weekly that she left the facility because "she felt Morningside was not suitable for her. There were too many paparazzi everywhere and she didn't feel safe. Nobody close to her is happy about this. They think she's really not being smart."

On Thursday morning, Lohan's attorney Mark Heller told L.A. Superior Court Judge James Dabney that his client was currently checked into rehab at Morningside Recovery in Newport Beach, California, and that therapy "is under immediate commencement." However, according to multiple reports, Lohan is not in rehab (SplashNews even photographed the troubled starlet shopping at a Southern California electronics store).

The New York Daily News claims the "Mean Girls" actress is currently on her way to LAX to catch a flight back to New York City.

"If there's credible confirmation she's heading back to New York, then I'm going to have to go in and ask the court to issue a warrant,” Deputy Santa Monica City Attorney Terry White told the publication.

Michael Lohan has confirmed to Radar Online that his daughter already left Morningside: “I have no other choice than to get this out there to help Lindsay.”

So why did the 26-year-old actress bail, knowing she could face jail time?

"[Lindsay] went shopping at an electronics store then she was on the (rehab center) property for a couple minutes but got spooked by the paparazzi,” a source allegedly aware of Lohan’s movements told the New York Daily News. “She was saying, 'I'm not going to rehab. I'm not going to rehab. Take me back to the airport.'

“If that’s the case I have been told that she will be arrested in New York and her bail will be set at $100,000," Michael Lohan told Radar Online.

The drama began this morning when Lohan checked into Morningside rather than Seafield Center in Westhampton Beach, New York, a rehab approved by the prosecution.

White said this morning that his office would investigate whether Morningside falls under the perimeters of the plea agreement.

The recovery center in question is not even licensed to provide alcohol or drug rehab treatment, a state official told CNN. However, Mary Helen Beatificato, the chief executive officer of Morningside, denied this to the LA Times, saying that was "completely false." Beatificato also said treatment is conducted by licensed clinicians at a 6,300-square-foot state-certified clinic and not at sober-living homes in Newport Beach and Costa Mesa.